Should American citizens be restricted from owning assault rifles? As the NRA bumper-sticker says, "When Guns are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns." The Second Amendment of our Constitution protects our right, as Americans to own guns, including assault rifles, exotic hand-guns, and other specialized weapons.

Should criminals be allowed to own and use assault rifles? Perhaps you would answer that question with a resounding "No!" How would you prevent criminals from purchasing assault rifles? Gun dealers and gun-show promoters will sell assault rifles to anyone. Private gun-owners sell assault rifles every day, to anyone with the cash. Right now, I could make one telephone call and, with $600, could own an assault rifle within 30 minutes.

Our founding fathers wished for all of their citizens to have the right to bear arms. But our founding fathers knew nothing beyond primitive ball-and-powder weapons, and their clear intention was to enable a citizen-based militia; a homeland security force which would make totalitarian dictatorship impossible.

There seems to be some thinking that what is going on with Mexican drug cartels is the reason why we should deny the sales of assault rifles to American citizens. It is a fact that Mexican drug cartels are now operating in 230+ cities here in the United States. They are carrying assault rifles on the mean streets of Los Angeles, Laredo, Miami, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Denver, Portland, and they are using their assault rifles to kill people.

Some years ago on Bellflower Blvd. in Long Beach, California, a nine-year-old girl was playing on the lawn in front of her home. A 4-door tan vehicle drove past. Members of a Vietnamese street gang leaned out of the car's windows with assault rifles and opened fire, killing the little girl. I was born and began my childhood on Bellflower Blvd, when Long Beach was a quiet and safe bedroom community. There were no bars on the windows of homes in those days.

This senseless murder of an innocent child was in 1992 or 1993, but it is a story which is repeated more and more often on our inner-city American streets.

The fact is, and cops from Los Angeles to Baltimore will tell you this themselves, "We lost the war on crime years ago." In light of the very imperfect world we live in, perhaps the Second Amendment, made to fit the needs of a rural colonial America, could be modified by common sense and brought into the 21st century.

Unless, of course, you will prefer to protect the rights of criminals ... to kill your children.

Jail is like a hard-core training ground to make them tougher, hate society more, and have more desire to seek revenge - if and when they ever get out again, or escape!

We have all heard it a million times - GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE - CRIMINALS DO!

The ONLY deterrent that guarantees that an animal who killed an innocent human being will never ever do it again is - D-E-A-T-H !!!

If it were up to me, executions would be NATIONALLY TELEVISED!

Why should our taxpayer dollars be totally wasted on Feeding, Housing, Clothing, Educating, and stupidly believing in Rehabilitation of MAD DOGS! At least They get
PUT TO SLEEP!

The Laws on the books, the REVERSE protection of criminals, instead of VICTIMS is totally asinine! Anybody with any sense KNOWS that many, many Police Officers even carry 'DROP KNIVES' for their own protection in dealing with - CRAZIES - DOPE FIENDS - ROBBERS - and other GOOF-BALLS!

How many times have you watched how many movies - and tried to COUNT the bullets expended? A revolver, or six-shooter that miraculously fires 8-10-12 -14 shots? A 9 Millimeter, or Automatic pistol with a max clip of 12 that produces 20-30 -40 rounds? And amazingly - NONE of all those so-called EX-PURTS can hit the side of a barn, let alone the target criminal? Pure Hollywood BS Fantasy!

Unless an Owner of a weapon is some kind of Specialist - there is no good reason on God's green earth for any private citizen to own - an AK-47 - OUZO - TOMMY-GUN - ROCKET-LAUNCHER - ELEPHANT GUN - HIGH-POWERED RIFLE - TANK-PIERCING AMMO - TRACER BULLETS - DUM-DUMS - GRENADES - LAND MINES - and all the other weapons of WAR!

They should ALL be BANNED!

The Manufacturers themselves - the WARMONGERS - should be put in JAIL for making an illegal fortune selling them! For Decades they have been reaping huge profits - are we to WAIT until they have a "BAD YEAR" and then BAIL THEM OUT?

My personal recommendation?

The Government should supply every household with a FREE Electric or Pneumatic NAIL GUN - a trespasser enters your home illegally - literally NAIL HIM TO A WALL! A couple hundred rapid-fire 5-10- or 20 PENNY NAILS just might be a good deterrent!

The incident you refer to on Bellflower Blvd. in Long Beach, CA goes on everywhere unfortunately. There are entire communities across the country where the residents are afraid to be outdoors in their own front yards. The Bible teaches that we have a right to protect ourselves. It's a personal decision as to whether you would use one against another human being if you needed to. It's a complex subject you bring up my friend and it has been for a long time. I believe it's one having no answer except your own beliefs. Humans have killed other humans since the beginning of time. If anyone were to threaten me or my family I'm prepared to defend and will leave it at that. You sure stirred the pot with this one my dear friend.

I am not sure of the right number but I have heard of a eight millions plus of illegal guns around, and millions of rounds (some Talon Cops Killer) metal jacket, dum-dums, you name it they have it, sometimes the cops are greater in numbers but out-gunned by the baddies arsenal.
An ex-Marine in no-guns-Sweden (the baddies are murdering each other and killing policemen) prays that not baddie should try to break through his solid steel front door, if he does he will be kissing the Devil's feet after departing from no-guns-Sweden.

This is just off the top of my head Ted, but I'm thinking that if the bad guys knew that all the good guys had guns too, they'd perhaps think twice about accosting the innocent. You make some very good points here. something to ponder upon for a good while. Blessings, J'nia

John Martin makes a valid case for citizen gun-ownership. It should work as well for Americans as it does for the Swiss. However, in most American States, a citizen is not permitted to use lethal force in self-defense, and that makes gun-ownership pointless as an element of self-protection. Here in Texas, I believe I am allowed to use lethal force to kill someone who is attempting to kill me -- as long as the police find the cadaver inside my own home. So, if someone wants to kill me (not likely on the worst of days), I must invite them into my home before I can kill them. Erm ... that is not an acceptable program for me. When I lived in east Los Angeles (even the LAPD is afraid to go in there), I saw all sorts of assault weapons, none of them registered, in the hands of gang-members. We are hearing of drug-wars in Mexico, close to our border and crossing the border, and their guns came from the United States because of our non-existent gun-sales regulations. In essence, the United States is supplying the weapons needs of the drug cartels and the terrorists we say that we are fighting. This is because our laws are antiquated and severely out of balance with reality.

Personally, my own morality says that killing other people, and even killing other creatures, is wrong. I wish there had never been any need to invent assault weapons of any kind. I truly understand the Swiss need to arm themselves seriously because they have been stomped on by foriegn invaders in the past (THAT won't happen again!) but their situation cannot be equated to any potential happening in America, except for the criminal threat we are seeing growing in our own inner cities.

We cannot rely on the survivalist militias of Montana to correct the problem that we see throughout the inner cities of America. And we certainly cannot rely on the NRA to sponsor controls of gun sales to criminals, gang members, and terrorists.

As a Canadian we unfortunately at times I think, do not have this rule. We do have strict gun control laws for as you say the law abiding citizens but as I discovered myself I can cross the border at NB and Maine purchase a gun there and they will deliver it across the border for me. Myself I do not think gun registration works, the answer I feel is stricter penalties for anyone committing a crime with a weapon whether it be a 22 hunting rifle or an assault rifle...mandatory jail time for a period of not less than five years.

By Law every Swiss Citizen has a fully automatic Assault Rifle in their home. Their murder rate is zip compared to The U.S. with all of it's gun laws. In the meantime, there are more real Assault weapons in the hands of gang members then probably the whole 82nd Airborne Division has. The clear and obvious entention of our forefathers for proventing the government from banning gun ownership was to allow for personal and property protection, and also overthrow an armed tyranical government should one get a foot hold in our country. Illegal guns cross our boarders, which we no longer protect every day. If someone does go nuts with a gun, then sane people should have guns to protect themselves, just as our forefathers intented.